Taking faith personallyBy Phil Lamb editor@couriernews.com The debate over Mel Gibson's interpretation of "The Passion of Christ" has finally been distilled down to the key question, posed by an article in the current Newsweek magazine: "Who killed Jesus?" Tempers have flared over the allegation that a line in the original script was anti-Semitic in that it appeared to place the blame for the execution of Jesus on all Jews, from the crucifixion right up to today. Fo...

A trainload of smilesThe Courier's Terry Krepel and Fred Gladdis will probably be grinning for another few weeks after getting to live out the childhood dream of just about every little boy and a high percentage of little girls. They got to ride in the cab of a steam locomotive. By the time they arrived in Van Buren, they had the flushed, sooty faces to prove it. The Union Pacific Challenger, a million-pound marvel of mid-20th century technology, drew onlookers at...

Arkansas divided over schoolsBy James Jefferson Two former justices will begin their evaluation of public education reform this week with opposing state views of whether the Legislature complied with a court edict to overhaul a school system deemed unconstitutional. The attorney general's office, representing the Legislature, will outline what lawmakers have done to comply with the Supreme Court's November 2002 order to provide equal educational opportunities for all scho...

Tax structure remains unfairThe largest tax increase in the history of Arkansas cleared the General Assembly on Friday and will become law without the governor's signature. The measure will raise $366 million in its first year, money that will be used in an attempt to meet the twin requirements of adequacy and equity in educating the state's children. The bulk of this money, all but $6 million of it, will come from increasing the state sales tax to 6 percent. Additional ...

Rooting out truth in IraqThe task of intelligence gathering is neither easy nor sure. Meaning must be gleaned from a flood of hints, rumors and suspicions; the intent of madmen must be divined, and then a course of action and response must be devised. Disasters await at every turn, whether from action or inaction. Worst of all, the recipient of an intelligence report stands in danger of hearing what he wants to hear. There can no longer be any denying that the intelli...

School kids need a brakeAll right, motorists, it's time to play a little word association game. You know how it works: We say "ice cream," you say "sundae." Ready? Here we go: "Stop sign." Very good, "stop" is a good association for that. "Red light." Good choice; "stop" is again the best response. "Big yellow school bus, stopped on the roadway, red lights flashing." What? No, we're sorry, but "gun it" is a very questionable response this time. It's one that might le...

Poor spellers get poorerIt should be a lesson for every student struggling through a grade school spelling lesson. Learning to write well and to spell well still counts for something, even in a high-tech, spell-check world. Just look at what's happening to poor spellers who list their goods on eBay. A recent New York Times article, researched and written by Diana Jean Schemo, turned up a crowd of people who are turning a tidy profit by searching for misspellings on i...

Pols spread credit, blameBy James Jefferson Gov. Mike Huckabee is not overly impressed with the Legislature's accomplishments during the longest Arkansas special session on record, and says what little has been done wouldn't have been done without him. "I realize that, had I not put forth a bold agenda more than a year ago and totally focused on getting it enacted, we wouldn't have had any major reforms," Huckabee responded to legislative leaders who had applauded the...

Time to pay school piperLeland Duvall, the Sage of Crow Mountain, spent years studying and writing about the economy and taxes for the late Arkansas Gazette. Today we borrow one of his most memorable phrases: "Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that fellow behind that tree." Nobody likes to pay taxes, but when the goal is clear, and the need irrefutable, higher taxes can be justified. The need to rescue our schools has been evident for years. We are currently cheating ...

Making a case for optimismA little competition is a healthy thing, but eventually folks who are neighbors need to remember that the boundaries that separate them are mostly imaginary, created for convenience and deserve to be ignored when it will benefit everyone. Such is the case - and such is the cause for hope - in Monday's first meeting of an advisory board created to guide the River Valley Intermodal Facilities Authority. The Authority has a goal of creating an in...

TV grandpa sadly missedKnock-knock. Who's there? Unfortunately, the long-suffering victim of so many knock-knock jokes won't be sharing any more laughs with us or our children. Bob Keeshan, better known to generations as Captain Kangaroo, died last week. "Nice" was always the key word with Captain Kangaroo, for those of us who grew up watching him every morning on a CBS affiliate. Perhaps "pleasant" would be more accurate. Mr. Rogers, another children's TV icon who ...

Debt's risks still ignoredTax and spend? Or tax-cut and spend? Democrats and Republicans like to toss jabs at each other to try to draw distinctions on how to handle the federal budget. What they're ignoring is the key similarity • they agree on the spending part, and they seem willing to risk spending this country into the poorhouse. The Congressional Budget Office this week predicted a federal deficit this year of $477 billion, the highest ever. And since its report ...

Lawmakers win reprieveBy James Jefferson Appointment of a special master to monitor the state's compliance with a court order to overhaul public education could help ease the political burden of enacting unpopular reforms. The state Supreme Court reclaimed control of the long-running court challenge to Arkansas' school funding formula Thursday, determining after oral arguments that the Legislature had failed to comply with its November 2002 order to overhaul the sy...

Lawmakers get a surpriseThe only surprise to come out of Thursday's action by the Supreme Court was the surprise experienced by many state legislators. Their responses were far from eloquent. "Already? Wow." "Oh my gosh, wow." "I don't have any thoughts." (Granted, a parenthetical comment made reference to the court action.) The same lawmaker continued his lack of thought: "What we have to do is represent the people and do what they want us to." Sorry, but the voice ...

Restore the cooperationThe long-running dissension over ambulance plans broke into public debate last week. After reviewing the final draft of the Russellville Fire Department's proposal to provide ambulance transport in the city limits, we can only affirm our first reaction, expressed in two editorials last year: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. The fire department currently provides first response to medical emergencies with trucks dispatched from its four station...

Opportunity to advanceOpportunity can be a slippery thing. It may knock at the door, but we must choose whether to answer. Sometimes, an equal opportunity can be denied by unfair policies and practices. Both aspects of opportunity were evident in articles in Wednesday's Courier. The Civil Service Commission took down a barrier to opportunity for Russellville Police officers who might be interested in winning a promotion. And city employees can receive a gift of opp...

Kroc legacy leads onwardSeveral years ago we used the philanthropy of the late Joan Kroc, the widow of the McDonald's restaurant chain founder, to illustrate a point about the overwhelming generosity of Arkansans. Her gifts that year were generous but paled as a percentage of her presumed income in comparison to the generosity of the typical southerner, who is known for gladly sharing a larger portion of what little he or she may have. Although the point is still a g...

School fate goes back to courtBy James Jefferson They persuaded the courts that Arkansas' method for funding public education is unfair and inadequate, but they disagree on how judges should react to legislators missing a court deadline for enacting remedies. Lawyer Bill Lewellen of Marianna wants the state Supreme Court to take over the public school system that it declared unconstitutional in November 2002 because the Legislature missed the Jan. 1, 2004, deadline the cou...

City budget shows flawsToo much month left at the end of the money. Most of us have experienced that in our family budgets; it's never pleasant and is rarely easy to solve. Making the minimum payment on the credit cards is one thing, but using the credit cards to buy groceries and pay the mortgage may be a sign there's a deeper problem. The city of Russellville finds itself in that situation now, with a $250,709 shortfall predicted for this, the first month of a new...

Increasing the peaceThe message of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lives on today, in the hearts and souls of people around the world. Among them are the members of the River Valley King Team, a group of area youth. Its members will be among those involved in the annual "Bridging the Gap" observances today in Russellville honoring the late civil rights leader. The actual King holiday falls on Monday. Part of the responsibility of being a King Team member is memorizing...